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11/16/2009 09:45 AM

Survey Shows Bright Future for Sustainable Packaging

SustainableBusiness.com News

A survey of top retail- and manufacturing-related companies reveals that more than 65% of companies have some type of sustainable packaging policy in place, while 28% are currently developing a policy.

The report, developed by Tompkins’ Supply Chain Consortium, states that for 79% of companies, packaging sustainability impacts their strategic
direction in the area of energy and material costs, and 76% see an
impact in environmental and economic concerns. At the same time,
executives see less of an impact in the areas of increasing
competitiveness and access to new markets, indicating that sustainable
packaging may be more about “hard” savings rather than “soft” benefits.

“When projecting the evolution of sustainable packaging, the future appears to be bright,” says Bruce Tompkins, Executive Director of the Consortium and author of the Packaging Sustainability Report. “Sustainable packaging is a very important issue for all types of companies across all aspects of their supply chains, and it continues to be thought of as a long-term, higher-level strategic process that provides overall direction to the organization.”

To improve their use of packaging sustainability initiatives, respondents said they need:

A better collection and recovery process

Higher end-user awareness

A better designed supply chain

A life-cycle analysis process that identifies the cost effectiveness of sustainability initiatives

As a keen proponent of reuse, especially designed-in, I am encouraged by the trend but disappointed there seems less enthusiasm in consumer-centric, and hence potentially sales ON TOP of production, legislative, PR & CSR-driven areas